At this point, the vast majority of what you see for both television and the internet is provided by Olympic Broadcasting Services, the "host broadcaster." They provide what is called the International Signal, which is video, natural audio, and graphics providing results/scores/timing/etc. It's generally very good and is enough to cover the event.

Rights-holding broadcasters have the option to supplement the International Feed with video of their own, usually for stuff like interviews and the like.

Quote:

Also, the full screen video has a giant banner ad at the top, forcing them to shrink the image and possibly also screw up the aspect ratio (I couldn't tell). Their interstitial commercials aren't enough, they can't give us full screen video? And what's the funniest part, they didn't actually sell the banner. It just says watch the Olympics on NBC tonight. No actual paying sponsor.

I watched in Chrome with the AdBlock extension, and don't remember seeing any ads (banner or interstitials).

At this point, the vast majority of what you see for both television and the internet is provided by Olympic Broadcasting Services, the "host broadcaster." They provide what is called the International Signal, which is video and natural audio. It's generally very good and is enough to cover the event.

Rights-holding broadcasters have the option to supplement the International Feed with video of their own, usually for stuff like interviews and the like.

And NBC does so, obviously, for many events. So why, on their own website do they not host videos of their own production for an event they aired on TV?

Quote:

Originally Posted by LoadStar

I watched in Chrome with the AdBlock extension, and don't remember seeing any ads (banner or interstitials).

That's a good tip if true. You watched full screen on a 16:9 screen and the video filled the screen? (Apologies for using the same word 3 times in the same sentence). I had black borders on 3 sides and a banner ad bar across the top. I used Safari.

My XL4 is doing well with the XXII Olympics. I can't imagine how I watched them before without 4 tuners and two terabytes of disk space. My only complaint is how slow the menus are when the thing is recording on two or three tuners, with several wishlists and SPs for Olympic events.

I'm currently in the mid-40's percent, and I'm currently scheduled to run out of disk space on Friday. Obviously I'll have to delete some stuff by then. I've found that I can run through anywhere between 6 and 10+ hours of coverage in 3-4 hours with TiVo.

The coverage is a bit better, but it's still fluffed to all get out with feature crap, most of which, is, well, crap. There is also clearly less stuff being broadcast than the summer olympics, which are a lot harder to keep up with than the winter. Although it's not as bad as in the summer, where there are many sports that they don't cover at all, I wish that they would give more prime time attention to curling, biathlon, and the cross country. The summer olympics are way worse, where there are tons of cool sports that never get shown, with only a few sports being played over and over during primetime.

The one annoying thing about the live coverage is that they put commercials in, so in curling, you miss the first few rocks of every end. Soooo annoying. We pay every month for USA, which is basically a total crap channel, and use it once every two years for Olympics, you'd think they could broadcast without any freaking commercials when they are live.

Quote:

Originally Posted by morac

Maybe it's just the mobile app. The only cable provider option I was given was Xfinity, though that's what I have.

They are auto-detecting based on IP address, so they know you're on Comcast's HSI network. WatchESPN does the same thing, which got really trippy when I brought my laptop, which is logged into my XFinity account to a friend's house who has Charter, and it said something like "Provided by Charter".

The coverage is a bit better, but it's still fluffed to all get out with feature crap, most of which, is, well, crap. There is also clearly less stuff being broadcast than the summer olympics, which are a lot harder to keep up with than the winter. Although it's not as bad as in the summer, where there are many sports that they don't cover at all, I wish that they would give more prime time attention to curling, biathlon, and the cross country. The summer olympics are way worse, where there are tons of cool sports that never get shown, with only a few sports being played over and over during primetime.

There's a lot fewer sports / events in the Winter than Summer. I think that's part of the reason we're seeing a lot of the live stuff repeated during prime time. I actually think the fluff has been mostly kept to a minimum, at least during prime time (although some of the stories are a joke). In the summer, since there are SO many sports to cover, they tend to show the sports that are considered most popular during prime time (track and field, swimming, gymnastics being the core summer sports). The problem with showing sports like Curling and X-country is they take hours to complete. So they will show short segments of those sports. But there's one channel almost designated to Curling, and I've seen quite a bit of X-Country on NBCSN over the weekend.

Quote:

The one annoying thing about the live coverage is that they put commercials in, so in curling, you miss the first few rocks of every end. Soooo annoying. We pay every month for USA, which is basically a total crap channel, and use it once every two years for Olympics, you'd think they could broadcast without any freaking commercials when they are live.

You want to watch the Olympics right? Well someone has to pay NBC so they can show them to you. So you get commercials. We don't notice it as much during our normal sports viewing because of the agreements between the sports leagues and TV to build in breaks for commercials so we don't miss the action. The IOC doesn't have such an agreement. I'm fine with commercials, but yeah, I've missed a goal or two in hockey and it annoyed me, but I'm not going to complain about it. Last thing I want is for NBC to go PPV again for Olympic coverage.

The part of NBC coverage that's been annoying me is how many events seem to get aired multiple times; and not just during prime time.

I understand that the prime time block is going to be repeats or edited versions of the overnight live (or less delayed) blocks; so I'm expecting that during prime time. But you get, for example, early morning coverage that re-airs events I'd watched the day before.

I don't want to have to constantly by trying to think whether I've seen this exact event before, or if that was training or semis or something and this is actually the next round.

I guess they are trying to cover the west coast, so they are repeating stuff. Makes sense in a way. if they show X-Country live at 9AM, eastern and have no plans to show it prime time, then why not show them again for the West Coast folks?

I guess they are trying to cover the west coast, so they are repeating stuff. Makes sense in a way. if they show X-Country live at 9AM, eastern and have no plans to show it prime time, then why not show them again for the West Coast folks?

Well in particular this was the men's downhill coverage that had been in the Sunday primetime coverage, being re-shown in the Monday morning stuff.

There's a lot fewer sports / events in the Winter than Summer. I think that's part of the reason we're seeing a lot of the live stuff repeated during prime time. I actually think the fluff has been mostly kept to a minimum, at least during prime time (although some of the stories are a joke). In the summer, since there are SO many sports to cover, they tend to show the sports that are considered most popular during prime time (track and field, swimming, gymnastics being the core summer sports). The problem with showing sports like Curling and X-country is they take hours to complete. So they will show short segments of those sports. But there's one channel almost designated to Curling, and I've seen quite a bit of X-Country on NBCSN over the weekend.

Correct, there are about 1/4 the number of athletes and far fewer events. They may have reduced the fluff over previous Olympics, but there are still tons of it in there.

For the summer olympics, they should balance it more, and edit it to get more action. There are many sports they show absolutely nothing of in the primetime summer coverage, like fencing, canoeing, kayaking, some of the marathon and cycling events, and many more. And they don't broadcast sailing at all. It would be horribly boring to watch in real time, but a 10-minute, well-edited recap of the day's sailing with some infographics could be really good. But instead they show absurd amounts of gymnastics, track and field, and swimming.

Quote:

You want to watch the Olympics right? Well someone has to pay NBC so they can show them to you. So you get commercials. We don't notice it as much during our normal sports viewing because of the agreements between the sports leagues and TV to build in breaks for commercials so we don't miss the action. The IOC doesn't have such an agreement. I'm fine with commercials, but yeah, I've missed a goal or two in hockey and it annoyed me, but I'm not going to complain about it. Last thing I want is for NBC to go PPV again for Olympic coverage.

I get that on NBC, but USA is a cable channel. I pay them every single month, and they just show old re-runs except for once every two years they do Olympics stuff. At least for the live events, they could lose the commercials. I wouldn't mind some on-screen commercials at the bottom of the screen or something. Either that, or just tape delay it and make it that much longer than it really is. It's so annoying to not see the first few rocks of every end. Or do both.

There's a lot fewer sports / events in the Winter than Summer. I think that's part of the reason we're seeing a lot of the live stuff repeated during prime time.

It's more noticeable this year because they have more total overall coverage (number of hours) than the last two olympics COMBINED. Combine that with limited number of events, you pretty much have to repeat it if you want to present a lot of Americans. They are even re-running hockey games during the day.

For the cross country skiing, I actually saw some sprint events today. They were cool. They didn't take long. Really, I think the times were just a few minutes.

__________________
Jeff
Proud to use my TiVo improperly
President of the TiVoShanan Fan Club

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

I get that on NBC, but USA is a cable channel. I pay them every single month, and they just show old re-runs except for once every two years they do Olympics stuff. At least for the live events, they could lose the commercials. I wouldn't mind some on-screen commercials at the bottom of the screen or something. Either that, or just tape delay it and make it that much longer than it really is. It's so annoying to not see the first few rocks of every end. Or do both.

The majority of the channel's income comes from commercials. They're not going to just stop showing them. That would be financial suicide.

I continue to be impressed by Johnny's commentary. His technical commentary is clear and precise (and since he has skated pairs, he has the insight that singles-only skaters lack). Since he's an artistic skater, he can speak intelligently on music choices and how the music helps or hinders the skater. And he can do fashion commentary!

Quick, someone send him to learn how to ice dance. Then we'll have the complete package.

P.S. Thanks for the links, Jeff. It's nice to see the head-to-toe looks.

__________________
"The capacity of human beings to disappoint me is never ending." -- Ereth

Don't a lot of cable channels make most of their money from subscriber fees? It's just aggravating the way they are doing it. It makes it so much harder to watch.

ESPN has by far and away the highest suscriber fees of any cable channel, close to $6 per subscriber per month. And they make about 60% of their total revenue from subscriber fees. But there are only a small handful of channels that even get over $1/sub/month, and most are less than $0.50. So the vast majority of cable channels still make most of their revenue from ad sales.

According to this site, USA Network gets about $0.71/sub/month, so assuming they have about the same pentration as ESPN (100 million subscribers), that means their annual subscriber revenue is about $850 million. I suspect that their ad revenue is much higher than that.

The web archive of the Men's hockey game from yesterday had NBC announcers when I watched it last night. The web archive of the Men's hockey game from 3 a.m. today had no announcers when I watched a bit of it this morning at 8 a.m.

So, I can't figure out when the web will have NBC's coverage of an event and when it won't.

ESPN has by far and away the highest suscriber fees of any cable channel, close to $6 per subscriber per month. And they make about 60% of their total revenue from subscriber fees. But there are only a small handful of channels that even get over $1/sub/month, and most are less than $0.50. So the vast majority of cable channels still make most of their revenue from ad sales.

According to this site, USA Network gets about $0.71/sub/month, so assuming they have about the same pentration as ESPN (100 million subscribers), that means their annual subscriber revenue is about $850 million. I suspect that their ad revenue is much higher than that.

That's almost triple the typical $.25.

ESPN is beyond out of control, although they do a very nice job presenting games and have the best sound in the industry, but they are the biggest example of why cable and satellite prices are so out of control. Too bad the cable and satellite providers can't form a cartel and beat these out of control cable channels into submission and get the carriage fees way down. Imagine if DirecTV and Comcast Charlie Ergen'ed a channel at the same time... quick results!

What makes $0.25 "typical?" A channel will charge as much as it can. Since USA is one of the most popular cable entertainment channels, it can charge more than the average.

Most cable channels get around $.25 last time I checked. Since when is USA popular? They run a bunch of junk re-runs, have a couple of shows of their own, and most people watch USA once every 2 years when NBC uses it for Olympics offloading from the main network feed.

Most cable channels get around $.25 last time I checked. Since when is USA popular? They run a bunch of junk re-runs, have a couple of shows of their own, and most people watch USA once every 2 years when NBC uses it for Olympics offloading from the main network feed.

They get 5 or 6 million people watching WWE every Monday night. Though, those rights are up soon.

Most cable channels get around $.25 last time I checked. Since when is USA popular? They run a bunch of junk re-runs, have a couple of shows of their own, and most people watch USA once every 2 years when NBC uses it for Olympics offloading from the main network feed.

USA has been one of the most popular entertainment cable channels for many years. Take away sports and news, and USA is one of the top 5 cable channels.

Every non-news cable channel runs a lot of reruns. None of them have the budget, viewership, or reason to program 24 hours a day of new content. But the most popular channels have the budget to license the most popular reruns, and so when you pair those reruns with high-quality original programming, you end up with a great channel like USA.